Wide Angle Macro
Taken at F1.8 1/640s 20mm ISO 100. Using a wide angle lens allows you to show the surroundings to give your subject context as well as perspective to your viewers.
The digital era has seen an explosion of people taking up macro photography. With the aids of digital screens, focus peaking and focus stacking it has become easier and easier to take consistently sharp close-ups of a subject, if you can get it to sit still. Typically, this is done with a short or medium telephoto lens (105mm and 60mm being the most common depending on your camera crop) to really zoom in on your subject and bring out its textured detail. However, these shots often lack context and viewing close-up after close-up of similar subjects can lead to a boring experience. They may be technically brilliant, but they do not always evoke an emotion or really tell us what the subject is doing, akin to looking at a stuffed animal in a museum.
Taken at F2.0 1/640s 20mm ISO 64. Wide angle macro gives you the opportunity to not just show of the subject but also more of their behaviour.
This lead me over the summer to try something different, picking up what was my least used lens, the Nikon 20mm F1.8G, and using it in a way I have not done before. What makes it interesting is that it can focus at 20cm from a subject and with its large F1.8 aperture can still blow out the background to create separation. This allows for a wide angled macro approach which allows you to put that context back into the shot by showing the subjects surroundings, telling a story that would not be there for many traditional macro close-ups. I had a lot of fun taking these shots as you have to really get up close to your subject rather than shoot from a distance and by doing so you start to see things you would not have seen otherwise. You start to think more about the surroundings as well as the height and angle of your shot to give the viewer a different perspective. By doing that you can convey a sense of how large the surroundings are compared to your subject and give that feeling of what it would be like to inhabit that mini world.
Taken at F2.0 1/640s 20mm ISO 64. An ant guards the black aphid which is farms for nectar.
This is far less common than traditional macro and so your shots will be (if done well) more likely to stand out from the crowd either online or at the next club competition. Nikon are not the only manufacturer to make a lens like this so make sure to look up what equivalent you can buy for your camera body. As standard my lens can only achieve 1:4 magnification, as opposed to true macro lenses that are capable of 1:1 magnification. I do have an old set of extension tubes somewhere which I will have to dust off and see what effects I can get combining the two.
What do you think? Will you give wide angle macro a try? Perhaps something to work out during winter in preparation for spring. Let me know in the comments section below.
Shot at F2.0 1/1600s 20mm ISO 64. As long as your subject remains still you can still record fine detail with a wide angle lens even at shallow apertures.
Taken at F2.0 1/640s 20mm ISO 64. By getting up close to your subject to take a shot you are able to see fine details, like the pollen clinging to this bee, with your own eyes which may help you decide what you want to focus on or emphasize.
Taken at F2.0 1/1000s 20mm ISO 64. With such a wide field of view it is much easier to capture images of fast moving, flying insects than if you used a telephoto lens.
An extra bonus image taken on my Z6 using my 14-30mm F4 lens. Shot at F4.0 1/1250s 14mm ISO 100. Plants with very three dimensional stems and leaves can work well as you can create an effect that the in focus areas are coming out towards the viewer.
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